Hannah Jacobs has directed this beautiful and technical spot for AXA Ireland Community Bike Rides scheme. It comes to life animated on the side of a real life bicycle wheel before leaping into full 2D animation.
The film’s unique technique takes inspiration from a zoetrope, a pre-film animation technique using multiple frames viewed inside a spinning cylinder. Transposing this idea onto a bicycle wheel, a “cyclotrope” is created with the animation captured in the spinning of the wheel. With a stationary camera trained on the wheel and some frame-rate trickery, the effect of animation is achieved.
Take a look behind the scenes here: